Ethics and Accountability Bob Smith The Smith Consulting

Ethics and Accountability Bob Smith The Smith Consulting Group Spring 2004 Conference Oklahoma Association for Instructional Research & Planning April 2, 2004 The Smith Consulting Group 1

Ethics and Accountability Expectations Standards Assessment Feedback The Smith Consulting Group 2

Standards Ø Law Ø Professional Codes Ø Morality Ø Personal Values Ø Organizational Norms The Smith Consulting Group 3

Ethics Ø Ethos (Greek) Ø Disposition, character or attitude Ø Human Conduct The Smith Consulting Group 4

Why Ethics? Ø Ethical errors end careers Ø Provides broader framework Ø Avoid tarnished image The Smith Consulting Group 5

Three Cs of Organizational Ethics Ø Compliance Ø Contributions Ø Consequences The Smith Consulting Group 6

Situations Ø Hospital Ø Marketing Research Ø OKAIRP The Smith Consulting Group 7

NCES Glossary Perturbation disclosure limitation techniques directly alter the individual respondent's data for some variables, but preserve the level of detail in all variables included in the microdata file. Blanking and imputing for randomly selected records; blurring (e. g. , combining multiple records through some averaging process into a single record); adding random noise; and data swapping or switching (e. g. , switching the sex variable from a predetermined pair of individuals) are all examples of perturbation techniques. The Smith Consulting Group 8

AIR Alert #20 – Title: Use of Perturbation in IPEDS Data 3/8/2004 The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) recently implemented a "perturbation" process for data from four surveys …As a result, the data NCES disseminates in the IPEDS Peer Analysis System (PAS) may not precisely match the data submitted by institutions. The Smith Consulting Group 9

Perturbation in IPEDS Data The NCES will not release details of its procedure (knowing which cells have been changed would defeat the purpose of perturbation), and NCES employees cannot disclose the process beyond what is described in this Alert. The randomization makes figuring out which cells have been perturbed more difficult. The Smith Consulting Group 10

Perturbation in IPEDS Data Furthermore, institutions should never advertise which of their data have been changed by perturbation-it is unlawful to disclose details of perturbation. The Smith Consulting Group 11